It's been almost 5 years since I left Butuan and I have long yearned to come
and visit her again. That longing was diminished this May of 2000...
When the
City of Butuan held its Balik Butuan. It was to my great joy to know that
somethings changed and something's didn't. But these changes, are they for
the good or for the bad? Well, in my opinion both.
When I left Butuan, there
was roughly not more than 10 spots where families, friends and visitors can
meet up and enjoy the music, sights, food, and specially the people. Now
cybercafes, bars, restaurants, clubs, and adult establishments are basically
just everywhere, as a matter of fact in some parts of butuan, they stood
right next to each other. These establishments including the adult
entertainments that you find around montilla blvd, langihan, and specially
near the post office area, no matter how demoralizing they may be, are
symbols of economic prosperity.
In all of these improvements in our city of
Butuan, there's one eyesore I can no long bear to look at. The proposed
Butuan City Sports Complex in Libertad. Millions of pesos, hard-earned money
by the people, collected through taxes, fees, and whatnot, went down the
drain as it would seem. It looks to me that the Sports Complex project has
failed and yet I wonder, since I have been absent for the past couple of
years in Butuan, did the city government made a formal announcement to the
hardworking people, who contributed for the payment of the construct of this
sports facility that its progress has been stop or temporarily suspended for
whatever reason it may be. Come to think of it, looking back at the situation
at hand in the late 80's to the present day, poverty still exists, and will
countinue to exist. It seems highly ILLOGICAL to me that building a sports
complex is the best way to, if not solve, atleast ease the economic hardships
that our people faced. Sure we can see that the construction of this facility
will provide jobs for some members of the community, but it also provides the
oppurtunity for "unintentional money handling", slushfunds, corruptions,
ofcourse all these are just speculations (with a high probability rate that
it did happen).
To be fair and not one sided in this article, I can see the
possible purpose of how the idea of building a Sports Complex came to be. The
construction would give jobs, bring businesses in, and maybe sports
franchise, but the priority is the people of Butuan, not the businesses or
sports franchise and that's why my thoughts to this subject conflicts with
the person who prosposed this project. The main reason I pointed out this
specific topic is because I believe this is a mistake and the people or
better yet certain people made a verybad decision in proposing this project.
From this mistake we must not only learn but fix it as well.
